The Wrestling home of Moondog Manson

As if having a sloping 12 foot ring that could fall apart at any time wasn't bad enough, River City Wrestling promoter Wayne Stanton singlehandedly made why he has been badmouthing the Manitoba Wrestling Safety Study easy to understand. On a show with more clumsy moves than a drunken Moondog Manson in a Penticton hotel, last night he jeopardized the future of all indy wrestling in Canada.

The quality of the Teddy Bob's bar show was barely above backyard. Stanton and his little helpers have no ability to direct the action to be either interesting or safe. The booking alone could cause a fan riot, such as a 3 way tag ending in a DQ. But that is to quibble.

The real sign this is not a responsibly run product is the spot designed to shatter beer bottles and blind a wrestler or patron. Stanton repeatedly teased to the crowd that Bobby Jay had broken bottles over his head in recent weeks, and RCW did not fail to deliver.

The Manitoba government should demand an investigation into how RCW can claim they have trained anyone, especially a rookie named I think Molson. No trained wrestler on Earth would allow himself to be bodyslammed over the top rope onto a table full of glass bottles.

Maybe to Wayne it is funny to have a big green 250 lb. lug in his first match dumped onto the laps of the band. It will be not so funny when he has to account to the entire professional industry in Manitoba for his activities, after causing the adult wrestlers and promoters to have to beg the government to allow them to form a Safety Council rather than get shut down permanently thanks to the Pee Wee wanna-be.

Broken glass is not a spot or a rib. When done to a patron in a bar, it is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and no doubt with Wayne's past business practice, he is hiding behind the Hotel's liability insurance. Not only that, but all the waivers in the world will not stop a court from awarding a new wrestler put into that position a sizeable award if he loses an eye. Let alone a lead singer.

I have seen wrestling in Canada from East Coast to West Coast, from Chi Chi Cruz to Scotty Mac. Any worker with any real goal of advancing in the profession would not be caught dead propping up this fiasco.

Then there is the matter of encouraging the patrons to provide the halftime entertainment by having 3 pairs of locals agree to have a race. Unfortunatly this was not a race to the door to leave, but instead a very uninsurable drinking contest, where the so-called Commissioner had women doff their tops before speed-quaffing a can of Budweiser. Classy indeed. Probably illegal on many levels too.

This may be good clean fun to some but since someone is duped into insuring all of this garbage, they and the other insurance companies will not be doing business with ANY wrestling promoter or hotel that hosts wrestling, ANYWHERE IN CANADA, after the inevitable accident happens, and a guitarist gets his hand sliced, or a rookie loses an eye, or a drunken fan passes out in a Spring Taxi and starts to choke to death swallowing their own vomit (if the driver is lucky since then he doesn't clean it up.)

My investigation into wrestling safety across Canada found Ground Zero tonight at Teddy Bob's Bar. Only Justim Tyme showed a lick of true potential and he could work for either Vancouver promotion tomorrow. Speaking of lick, the former 17 year old valet Sage may have been around RCW for a year, so why does this 18 year old still need to get trained? Oh ya, cause she has no clue what she is supposed to do and the RCW so-called trainers blow. As in suck wind, since they all think cardio is a kind of pasta.

Remember when Stanton claimed on his message board that RCW was developmental? All this outfit has developed in the past year is a well-earned reputation for being a deliberate attempt by an out of work comic to ruin the potential of the wrestling business for Chi Chi Cruz, EZ Ryder, Shane Madison, Lexx Bastein anyone else in Winnipeg.

(RCW performers take note: all four of the aforementioned hit the gym and have tans. They are what we call pro wrestlers. Try to be like them and not like Wayne.)

It is no wonder Stanton libeled the study and the study group members on his message board, which he mysteriously shut down this week. He does not care about safe workplaces, he has no sense of right from wrong, he only has a sense of boosting his own miserable self-esteem (and it must be miserable when a 45 year old man surrounds himself with 14 and 15 year old valets and then when he gets heat, he has to run shows in a bar that they can't get into). And speaking of 14 year old valets, Jerin Rose has reemerged in RCW thinking the fans didn't hear about him and his "obsessed fan"... but he sure heard them.

But I digress. This week Stanton was warned to reconsider calling a wrestler advocating safe and responsible practices a "coward" and "gutless". Next week he may want to reconsider his current path that sets him squarely at odds with an industry that across Canada will take action to protect their business from his perverse Wednesday night hobby.

I can hardly wait for the RCW show at the Avenue tonight where Wayne Stanton expands his campaign to screw up the wrestling industry for everyone.